#fatart

Fat Art – Annie Lee

I love all of Annie Lee’s art, but this is only about her fat art. Her art depicts scenes from African American day-to-day lives. They are full of movement, warmth, and community.

All characters in Annie’s paintings have one common trait; faces which has no features. Why does Annie paint in this manner? Here were Annie’s reasons:

o Annie Lee preferred to bring her paintings to life through the movement and body language of the characters. Annie did not want faces to interfere with the story she was painting through the body language of her characters.

o By painting without faces, Annie allowed her customers to project themselves or people that they know into the painting.

I appreciate Lee’s thinking when it comes to leaving her subjects faceless. I like being able to fill in the face and expression. I like participating with the artist as to what the art is saying to me at any given time. This means that every time I look at Annie Lee’s art, I am seeing something new – my perspective is fluid because it is influenced by my own mood and circumstance.

Many of her paintings have been made into figurines as well; although, I prefer the simplicity and flexibility of the paintings – I like the suggestiveness of paintings – of what is happening just outside of the canvas.